Hellllooooo CALIFORNIA! (and Chicago...and Seattle)

Whoa.

What a blur of an AWESOME week.

For one thing, we got a TON done. a TON. I wouldn't have imagined getting as much completed as we did, had it not been for 7 unruly, rugged, hardcore, get-that-werk-dun-type volunteers. Haha ok maybe that's not the most accurate description for them, but they WERE a little crazy, and I DID have a few days where I had to coax them to STOP.


One Brick Volunteers- Toni, Raj, Horst, Miss Mary, Charlotte, Kim, Vicky, Eric, Me

"We'll stay late, Leisl" ...
"We'd rather be here working after 4:30, than waiting in traffic" ... "
"We almost came back last night and broke into the house to keep working" ...

Are you kidding me??? How did I get the lucky straw to have such a motivated & fun group for a whole week? This was my first group of volunteers to be leading for a solid 5 days, and I couldn't have asked for a better group to kick-it-off.

Their first words to me were "What's your least favorite vegetable?" ... little did they know that the key to my heart is to talk about produce ;)

The week in a nutshell:

Mud, mud, mud.
Sand, sand, sand (lucky Kim)
"we'll stay late!"(thanks, Vicky!)
Ice cream truck break...(somebody got the drivers number! haha)
mud, mud, mud. (with 45- RAJ)
Eric inspects the work.
Toni breaks down dancing.
Clawfoot tub taken out
Drill, drill, drill
Bathtub in
Drill, drill, Drill
Bathtub walls back out
Go git after it, Horst!
DAiQuiRi's!!!!
Bathtub walls IN
Mudding DONE
Sanding DONE
Raj's black shirt is white AGAIN!
PRIME PRIME PRIME!!!
Textuurrrrreeeee it girl! (Charlotte)
PAINT!!!!!
(Frenchman celebration!)

Mary's bedroom, painted.
Front (spare) bedroom, painted.
Hallway, painted.
Bathroom, new tub installed, most of the room done floating.
Utility room taped & sanded ready for texture.

All 7 of the volunteers were with St. Bernard Project through an organization called "One Brick" which organizes volunteer trips all around the country. Five of the group were from California (majority from the Bay area), Raj was from Chicago, and Toni was from Seattle. Their personalities meshed well together. Each one was truly here for the right reasons. I think they sucked more out of their experience here in the bayou, than probably most people or most groups will. In true New Orleans style, they worked hard AND they partied hard. It's really cool to have a job that makes me a part of such powerful experiences. I'm so blessed to be here.

So, here are a few pictures of the house at the end of the week (my camera broke mid-week so i'm stealing them from Erik)

Miss Mary's Front Bedroom (This is just before we applied a layer of 'antique white')


Utility Room ready to be textured & primed!


Miss Mary's New Tub! (then we had to take down the walls... we'll be tiling the walls, and adding handicap railings!)


Typical.

So, many thanks to Erik, Kim, Charlotte, Toni, Horst, Vicky, and Raj - you guys were awesome, and you've truly helped Miss Mary get one more step closer to moving home!!!